For the sake of forming accurate expectations of what PWX is likely to become, and indeed not to become, I wish to ask a particular question about the grappling mechanics.

Now, for many years it has been clear that the system for performing standing grapple moves will be similar to the AKI method: a "grapple loop" precedes any grapple move, and can itself be initiated weakly or strongly. The most recent statement of intention came from an interview on Axe Bomber Magazine, in which the system was summarised thus:

Dave Wishnowski Wrote:There are no ready moves from a standing grapple, all grapple moves are initiated from a grapple loop state. Same goes for apron, ringside, and turnbuckle grapples .

Now, with all due respect to matters that have already been decided, do you intend for this to be the only grappling system used in future incarnations of PWX? I find games in which the same animation precedes all grapple moves to be somewhat unrealistic, though I admit that the majority of developers and players have no problems with them. I have plenty to say about what I would rather see being used in contemporary wrestling games, but at this point I merely wish to know whether the AKI system is planned as the only direction for future development.

The current system you see in Uprising represents maybe 2% of my overall design goals for the grappling system. Ideally I want to at least TRY to see what we can do with a much deeper and open grapple initiate system. More KoC-style starting positions and quicker "ready move" style options. You can sorta see the direction I want to experiment with. The side grapple position, the "hold button" ready moves with strong front grapples. But you can also very clearly see that we still have a long way to go before even the basic AKI style grappling is working well enough to allow us to proceed in new directions. Great question!

FYI we are fixing and improving our animation system. It's now possible to go straight into grapple moves without doing a grapple loop first. That being said, it could completely screw what what little balance Uprising already has so I'm not sure it is something I can honestly say I'll add yet. At least not until we prove it works really really well.